The Sales Page

[Part One, Part Two]

Now that you’ve set up your site’s design, structure, and content, the toughest question of all arises: How will you move your visitors from the home page, through the information they want, and ultimately, to the sales page – where they’ll finally click on the all-important “order” button?

First of all, let’s clarify one point which is important to remember as you plan your promotional campaigns and view their results: Just because a customer might not buy what you offer doesn’t mean they won’t come back in the future, or refer their friends to your site.The Sales Page

[Part One, Part Two]

Now that you’ve set up your site’s design, structure, and content, the toughest question of all arises: How will you move your visitors from the home page, through the information they want, and ultimately, to the sales page – where they’ll finally click on the all-important “order” button?

First of all, let’s clarify one point which is important to remember as you plan your promotional campaigns and view their results: Just because a customer might not buy what you offer doesn’t mean they won’t come back in the future, or refer their friends to your site. Similarly, just because you may have processed an order, doesn’t mean it’s valid. Remember not just to look at sales you make through the site, but at your other traffic statistics, feedback from customers and potential customers, and the nature of any referrals.

Now, let’s look at the sales page elements.

Page Layout

Your sales pages should sell. Making the sale is the sole purpose of the page, and the single reason you place it on your site. This is why it is important to avoid the hype, extraneous detail, and lengthy copy that you might include elsewhere on the site.

Publish only facts on the sales page — and don’t offer anything you can’t stand behind 100%, otherwise you may be involved in some serious legal problems in the future. Try to present the hosting plans alone, so that they may be easily reviewed and digested by your visitors. However, it’s a good idea to offer a link to a comparison table such as this one, in order to illustrate to your potential clients just how well your services stack up.

Plan Information

Divide the sales information on your hosting plans into logical sections. For instance, if you offer reseller hosting, dedicate an entire page to it. In the same vein, try to present all the hosting plans for the same platform together. This logical separation of information will make it easier for the users to find what they’re looking for, while providing the impression that your business has a lot to offer, and is not just a small-time, fly-by-night operator.

Avoid the trap of offering “unlimited” inclusions in your hosting plans. Unlimited bandwidth, for example, is logically impossible, and so many Webmasters are opposed to this kind of deception that there are now whole communities banding together to act against hosts that promote “unlimited” plans.

At the bottom of the page try to display the logos of the companies you’re in partnership with, or whose products you use. This can help bolster the visitor’s perception of your reliability and trustworthiness – you can effectively leverage the good names of those with whom you are associated.

Consider also inserting links from appropriate technical terms (such as CGI, ASP, transfer etc.) on your sales pages to a glossary. The glossary is accessed every time a user clicks on a highlight term on the sales page, providing extra information as required, but without distracting the user from making a purchase.

Remember that some Webmasters are just starting out – and they’ll need you to hold their hand at every decision. You might even consider adding a hosting “wizard” for that exact purpose — it’ll help reassure the user, and can be very effective in streaming visitors to the point of sale.

The Final Review

Once you’ve finished all the steps mentioned above, and you have the site ready, the real work begins! Go to the following forums and ask the members to review your site. You’ll find their feedback invaluable, and the ideas you may gather could change your entire business approach (hopefully for the better). Try:

· SitePointForums.com
· WebHostingTalk.com
· TutorialForums.com
· Forums.WebHostDir.com

Good luck!

Lonny has been working on the Internet since 1996, and now has his own network of technology-related Websites, among them The Web Hosting Portal FindSP.com of which he is the CEO and Founder. Lonny can be reached at lonny@findsp.com.